Amendments to the Electricity Act are likely to come up in the Monsoon Session of Parliament to prevent states from imposing load shedding unless there is technical trouble.

Union Power and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said the government is also working on a law to ensure that there is no “gratuitous load shedding” and households are provided uninterrupted power except in case of technical problems. This needs amendments to the Electricity Act 2003, which are likely to be taken up in the Monsoon Session, he said.

Singh said the government was aiming to make power supply available to 4 crore households by March 31 next year. The government is also set to announce a policy on charging stations for electric vehicles across the country as the first set of electric cars are expected to be on road in a month.

According to Singh, his own ministry is expected to get five to six sedan electric cars by next month and around 500 electric cars are to be delivered soon. As the Narendra Modi government is keen on getting electric cars as at least 30 per cent of the total cars on road by 2030, the power ministry will come out with a policy for setting up charging stations in cities as it works to enhance the use of these cars to curb pollution and reduce India’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, Singh said.The charging stations, which would be first set up in DISCOMs, Central PSUs and PSUs, will be treated as service stations for consumers and the cost could include average cost of purchases, wheeling charges and a small additional charge, but is not likely to go beyond Rs 3-3.5 per kilometre.

Singh said the government would also set up corridors for charging the electric cars. “The priority is to set it up first in metropolises then we will see the market picking up and people buying more electric cars,” Singh said.